Thompson Twins - Peace, Love and New Wave

The name will surely ring a bell, and for many — especially those who were around at the time — it will be easy to recognize the notes, or at least the chorus, of "Hold Me Now", a true classic of the 80s decade. But who were the Thompson Twins, the British band behind not only that hit but several others? One of the scene's "secondary" names, often regarded as a one-hit wonder: that's often the verdict.

But the band's story is actually more colorful — and colorful in more ways than one — than you might think. Like many other pop/rock acts of the era too often dismissed with condescension — Wang Chung, Living In A Box, The System, Quarterflash, Arcadia and Nik Kershaw are, for instance, all names that deserve serious reconsideration — they reveal, to the attentive listener, far more nuance and surprise today than one might legitimately expect.

Sure, we're still talking about a "mainstream" band, at least during their most successful phase; so it's hard to pinpoint a timeless masterpiece, and in terms of sheer appeal "Hold Me Now" remains, if not necessarily their best song, certainly their most famous and noteworthy one. But across eight albums and sixteen years of activity, they churned out plenty of interesting sounds and imaginative music. That's why, even decades later, the Twins' world is well worth rediscovering.

The Thompson twins

The story begins in 1977, the golden year when punk becomes a musical phenomenon and inspires countless new bands to pick up guitars and rewrite the rules of rock'n'roll from scratch. The lesson of the Sex Pistols, popular throughout Britain, is that anyone can do it; you don't need to be Pink Floyd or Queen. And it's with this spirit that Tom Bailey, born in 1956 in Sheffield, arrives in London practically penniless and sets his musical project in motion, squatting in abandoned buildings in the meantime.

Bailey, who studied classical piano and even taught music at school, embraces the new punk credo just as the genre is already evolving into its post- variant, with bands ditching easy, full-bodied chord progressions and raw energy to dwell instead on nihilistic complications and guitar interplay in the style of Television, also borrowing liberally from funk technique and black music, from reggae, from German proto-electronic influences and from the new synths capable of producing incredible sounds. In other words, new wave is being born.

In the beginning the lineup includes Bailey on bass and as main vocalist (a role he'll keep for his whole career) plus several other members: Pete Dodd (guitar, vocals), John Roog (guitar), Jon "Pod" Podgorski (drums) – the latter later replaced by Andrew Edge, who in turn was replaced by Chris Bell. The group takes its name from the famous comic detective duo Thomson and Thompson (who aren't twins, just look-alikes), from the popular comic strip series "The Adventures of Tintin".

Squares and Triangles

1980, right at the start of the new decade, sees the band's official debut single: "Squares And Triangles", a lean, cutting post-punk track about incompatibility, whose style recalls The Jam of Paul Weller. The track offers a good example of the band's early approach, already betraying an elusive pop streak while also losing itself in almost jazz-like instrumental improvisations. This is the Thompson Twins of the debut: very much geared, like several other early post-punk bands, towards making "artistic" and politically engaged music.

And it's the same character found on the band's debut album, A Product Of…, released in 1981 with the addition to the lineup of saxophonist Jane Shorter. Two other members begin orbiting the band during this period: percussionists and vocalists Joe Leeway and Alannah Currie – the latter uncredited on the first album, and future partner and wife of frontman Tom Bailey. These are two names crucial to the band's history, but at this stage still just two among the many who pass through the lineup.

Indeed, in a spirit of highly democratic collective collaboration, Bailey welcomes everyone's contribution, and at live shows the performances are even open to the audience, with spectators happily invited on stage to play percussion and join in on the songs. These, in this first phase of the band's career, are all built around a post-punk style that's heavily guitar-driven but also eclectic, and which at this point certainly isn't looking at the charts.

From post-punk…

The first album features various different shades of the genre: while the opening track, "When I See You", recalls the "sarcastic" post-punk of early Xtc or Gang Of Four, the African influences of the ambitious "Slave Trade" or the tribal chanting of "Oumma Auralesso" – a track that today could easily be accused of cultural appropriation – head in a very different direction. Even more disorienting is the closing track, "Vendredi Saint", a joke – in the strictly musical sense – devised by Bailey based on a Gregorian chant, with humorous intent and a result that recalls the very "dada" irony of punk culture.

But already on this first album it's clear that artistic post-punk isn't the right path for the Thompson Twins: the more ambitious songs, even thematically – "Politics", "Slave Trade", "The Price" – stand out, but it's in the love songs and the more "pop" compositions that the band's real musical potential immediately emerges. As in "Make Believe (Let's Pretend)", a very melodic and simple song about an imaginary friend (or girl).

What really stands out, though, is "Anything Is Good Enough", particularly well produced, with interesting guitar work that recalls Marco Pirroni's contemporary work with Adam And The Ants, and in which it's clear that Bailey is being pulled by instinct towards addressing as wide an audience as possible beyond punk's fanbase, already stretching the boundaries of the band's bohemian reputation and ideology. And then, of course, the non-existent success of the early singles is read as a further sign of the need to change direction.

…to new wave

And the change arrives, dramatically, right at the opening of the second album – Set, from 1982 – with the catchy, poppy "In The Name Of Love". Written by Bailey initially just as filler, the song marks the turning point for the band, opening the doors to pop and abandoning – albeit still hesitantly – the shores of post-punk to venture into the sea of new wave. Thanks to legendary producer Steve Lillywhite, the sound becomes cleaner, more concise and more colourful.

The turning point isn't immediate, however, and the rest of the second record actually seems to want to head in the opposite direction. The collective expands to seven members, including Matthew Selingman on bass to give Bailey more room as frontman. Saxophonist Jane Shorter is officially replaced by Alannah Currie, now a full member, while Joe Leeway also starts to take on greater importance both as writer and vocalist. Add to that the elusive, temporary presence of none other than Thomas Dolby, who contributes synths on several tracks.

We're still talking largely about post-punk, and the British band's rough, artistic early character remains, but in tracks like the breezy "Bouncing", the imaginative "Good Gosh" and the atmospheric, Police-style reggae of "Runaway", or in the danceable funk-rock of "Fool's Gold", you can sense the impatient urge to try new and different things, to experiment with different genres and to create happier, more accessible music. Either way, by mid-1982 – and with the success of "In The Name Of Love" on the American Billboard Dance chart (where it reaches number 1) – the course is set.

The Bermuda Triangle

Although Thompson Twins started out as a participatory collective with a refined, sophisticated approach, already by the second album it's clear that Tom Bailey, besides being lead vocalist and frontman, has become the band's de facto leader as well as its principal songwriter. The main ideas are his, the key insights are his. Around him, in the early months of 1982, orbit his girlfriend Alannah Currie — the newest recruit — and Joe Leeway.

The three of them come up with the idea of forming a trio side-project called The Bermuda Triangle, with the specific aim of exploring further the pop sound of "In The Name Of Love" while keeping the Twins' post-punk project going in the meantime. At first it was meant to be just a kind of off-the-cuff "diversion", but The Bermuda Triangle becomes the main focus once Set also fails to sell and it's clear the post-punk formula isn't paying off. After all, by 1982 all the major post-punk bands of the era have already evolved their sound in one way or another, and there's no reason for Thompson Twins to be the exception.

So, on the suggestion of manager John Hade, the band is scaled down to a trio and its musical direction reset. The remaining members are let go, each given a £500 severance payment. They're allowed to keep their instruments, but must sign an agreement stating they can never again perform under the band's name. Because from April 1982 onward, in a fresh, renewed, modern guise, Thompson Twins become a threesome: Tom Bailey, Alannah Currie and Joe Leeway.

Quick Step And Side Kick

The British band's third album is therefore the first written, produced and recorded as a trio. It's called Quick Step And Side Kick, released in 1983, and it immediately marks the group's new, successful pop direction, whose members soon also become new wave icons: striking in image too, with colourful, outlandish outfits and trendy 80s hairstyles, the three Thompson Twins become the perfect faces of the Second British Invasion, which at this point is at its peak. English new wave bands are hugely fashionable and are shaping the look and sound of new pop.

The album proves it straight away with a perfect, catchy collection of potential hits, "cleaned up" (so to speak) of the post-punk guitar scratchiness of the first albums and built instead on catchy melodies, engaging rhythms, dance-inflected beats and arrangements favouring synths and heavy bass. The three of them sing together, and even though Bailey's role as frontman is by now official, what comes through in the songs is still the strength of a trio: a trio of enthusiastic young people discovering they might just be potential hitmakers.

And the songs are there: the Eastern-tinged gimmick of "Lies", the rhythmic, atmospheric "If You Were Here", the celebratory sound of "Love On Your Side" and the lofty, intense pop of "Tears" deliver a new wave that's colourful, eclectic and inspired, but also naively enthusiastic and unabashedly — that dreaded word — "commercial". A high point is "Watching", with its peculiar air of mystery seasoned by a refined, almost baroque sophisti-pop arrangement; and the fun "Love Lies Bleeding", a lush track in the style of Abc, is a great almost-single.

The golden trio

In 1983 everything changes for Thompson Twins, and that was in fact their intention from the very recording of Quick Step & Side Kick. To write it, they take a long holiday in Egypt and then head to Nassau to record with producer Alex Sadkin, who brings along as a "bonus" Grace Jones — who appears as a vocalist on "Watching". The exotic, foreign influences come through clearly on the album, giving it a warm, "summery" character typical of the 80s.

Contemporary reviews of the third album weren't very positive — there was vague talk of English "funk", and one review called the album "as interesting as the Wolverhampton bus station at two in the morning". But the record is a success, the singles finally do well on the charts — more or less — and the three become national celebrities and beyond, helped also by their videos, which start airing on MTV and make them idols of the new generation, keenly attuned to the latest in music video.

After all, the project is carefully managed, since the three of them handle every aspect of their musical career first-hand: besides writing the songs together, they also split up the duties, with Currie usually handling the lyrics and the trio's visual image — not just the clothes, but also the music videos; Leeway taking care of live presence and stage shows; and Bailey managing the musical side, including melodies, arrangements and production.

Hold me now, hold my heart

Luck keeps smiling on the trio when, in 1983, they're chosen to open the American dates of Police's tour, but the best is yet to come. It arrives at the end of the year, when in November the new single "Hold Me Now" is released. And it's an instant classic: to this day it remains without doubt Thompson Twins' most famous song, the one probably everyone recognises even without recalling the band's name. To give an idea, it's the band's most streamed song on Spotify with 115 million streams — the runner-up, with a mere 12 million, is "Doctor! Doctor!".

According to legend, the idea for the song came out of an argument between Tom and Alannah, and the track was then written in just half an hour. Like many great hits, it wasn't designed to be one: it's a carefree ballad celebrating love — a recurring theme, in a rather "hippie" sense too, in the Twins' output of this period — and mutual understanding, especially within a couple. But the melody is particularly well-judged, the chorus in the refrain is utterly inescapable, and Bailey's irresistible falsetto rounds it all off.

The track exemplifies the great eclecticism the three showed in their instrumental exploration at this stage: we hear a wide array of keyboards, piano, conga, xylophone, percussion and a very incisive bassline — standard for the period among many new wave bands such as Duran Duran or Tears For Fears. The track sounds fresh, musical and fun, and is a perfect 80s anthem. Helped by its catchy video, with the three of them singing and dancing through every cliché of the decade, success is guaranteed: "Hold Me Now" is a top-10 hit in several countries, including the UK, Australia and the United States.

The West is the West, the East is the East

Next came the blockbuster album Into The Gap, the central chapter in the "trilogy of the trio," again recorded in Nassau and released in 1984. On the cover, the three appear framed in vivid blue with various globes spinning around them – a reference to the "political" commentary (so to speak) of the title track, which, over exotic new wave sounds, attempts to reflect on the white-hot state of the Cold War, arguing that "there's no right or wrong" and that "the gap" between East and West should simply be bridged, or erased.

Clearly, Thompson Twins aren't U2 and politics isn't their forte. That's why, even though the title track is certainly engaging, the best moments are always the ones about love and relationships: the intense, passionate "Doctor! Doctor!," the Culture Club-style fantasy of "You Take Me Up," the sentimental pop-rock of "Sister Of Mercy," and the epic – almost prog – ballad "Storm On The Sea" are all clear examples of this.

This album, too, wins over the charts more than the critics, reaching a respectable number 22 in Italy and the top spot in Britain. In 1984 the trio set off on a world tour to consolidate a success that by now is undeniable. Quite a few consider them a "silly" band, purveyors of frivolous sounds and lightweight lyrics, made to be listened to by empty-headed young trendsetters. But that doesn't deny them a place among the most popular rock/new wave acts of the mid-decade.

Global success

The ground for the next album is prepared with a new single, "Lay Your Hands On Me," in keeping with the band's sound of this period: a celebratory love anthem with an emphatic refrain and glossy new wave sounds, perfect for the charts. The trio is ready to record a new album, this time in Paris, on their own, parting ways with producer Alex Sadkin, with Bailey stepping in to take his place. But something goes wrong: in March 1985 Bailey collapses in his hotel room. The cause: nervous exhaustion.

The following single, "Roll Over," is pulled from the market and the band is forced to take a break, leading them to rethink their activity and the nature of the new album. A change of plans follows: to produce the new record they bring in none other than Nile Rodgers, legendary guitarist and leader of Chic, met by chance in New York during the months off. An unexpected but happy union, which soon bears fruit.

The collaboration is sealed with a double appearance by the Twins alongside Rodgers at the famous Live Aid, on July 13, 1985, at the John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia. In the afternoon they back none other than Madonna, singing "Love Makes The World Go Round"; in the evening it's her turn to appear with them on a cover version of the Beatles's "Revolution," which will later be recorded in the studio for the new album. A preview of a "return to guitars," or at least that's how it's marketed. But, thanks to Rodgers's presence, the guitars on the new songs will be far less rock and much more... funky.

For future days

At this point Tom Bailey considers himself practically a sort of John Lennon , and the inclusion of one of Lennon's own songs on the new album seems no accident. But even though Here's To Future Days, released in September 1985, conveys a certain sense of importance, one shouldn't be fooled: once again the record is far from making any serious political statements, leaving more room instead for that "love for everyone" rhetoric that was indeed Lennon's and the Beatles's, but which here, as always, comes wrapped in euphoric tones and new wave sounds.

The title track thus takes shape as a highly rhythmic anthem to universal peace, with ample room for percussion and a refrain that sounds like a stadium chant. The funk-rock of "Don't Mess With Doctor Dream" is a song "against" drugs, while "King For A Day" is Motown-inflected pop-rock that talks – critically, of course – about wealth, power and money. And on "Emperor's Clothes (Part 1)," a reference to Andersen's famous fairy tale, they muse on vanity and the futility of voicing excessive desires. A peculiar message for the mid-1980s.

Standing out on the record, besides the already-mentioned booming lead single "Lay Your Hands On Me," are the fun, danceable funk of "Love Is The Law," whose message is clear from the title alone, and the intense parable of "You Killed The Clown," with sax and dense smooth atmospheres as the backdrop to the story of a cheerful, life-filled girl – a "clown" – who gets "killed." Some songs seem very loosely connected to one another – in this last one a line goes: ⟦Q1⟧ – a sign that perhaps at first they'd considered a concept with related characters and situations. That's not what shows up in the finished product, and maybe that's for the best.

Joe Leeway departs

Despite the skillful contributions of Nile Rodgers and Steve Stevens, the guitarist of Billy Idol, Here's To Future Days sounds more ambitious than coherent, and the sounds, despite the promised "return to guitars," remain more or less the same throughout. The album still does well, though less than its predecessor – reaching number 5 in the UK and number 20 in Italy – and the singles also fare less well, often failing to crack the top 10. On top of that, two UK tours have to be cancelled – the first, which was also meant to include a Glastonbury performance, due to Bailey's health problems – although the rest of the world dates go ahead fine.

But decline, unexpected yet just around the corner, catches up with the band in 1986 when Joe Leeway suddenly decides to leave the trio. In a 2025 interview for Classic Pop Magazine he explained: "With Thompson Twins it was like working with friends. But when I was with other musicians it didn't work out, so I re-educated myself and went back into the real world, where life then worked out for me." After briefly trying to record as a solo artist – without ever finishing an album – and appearing in the 1989 film "Slaves Of New York," Leeway went on in subsequent years to take on various jobs in the entertainment industry before ending up working as a hypnotherapist in Los Angeles.

Left on their own, Tom Bailey and Alannah Currie take some time off in 1986, but face two personal traumas along the way: the loss of their unborn child, due to a miscarriage, and the death of Alannah's mother, in the same year. Deeply marked by these traumatic experiences, they retreat to a house in Ireland, and it seems the end has come for the group. But precisely because of the intensity of the pain brought on by these events, as often happens in art and especially in music, they rediscover their inspiration and begin writing new songs for what will become their first album as a duo: Close To The Bone.

The Duo Phase

With 1987 and their sixth album comes a turning point that pushes decisively toward arena rock, leaving behind (or at least into the background) the percussion and keyboards and bringing to the fore – this time for real – guitars in a decidedly more rock-oriented direction, clearly audible in new songs like “Follow Your Heart”, “Savage Moon” and “Get That Love”. The new tracks still deal with love and attraction, but with a less naive, more mature, less "adolescent" accent, so to speak – by 1987 both Bailey and Currie are already in their thirties.

The new wave spirit of the Twins survives in a couple of songs such as “Stillwater” – the best track on the album – and “Gold Fever”, another "protest" song against greed and the darker side of capitalism – in the year that Oliver Stone's “Wall Street” came out, the theme was, after all, on the rise. Overall, the songs are much less "colourful", relying more on emotional expression of the themes and less on the arrangements – which, in any case, are clearly missing Leeway's hand and touch.

The album is "closer to the bone" because, on paper, it aims for a more direct and essential idea of what the two want to do at this point, without "frills", let's say. But it's the wrong path, because once taken, the truth comes out: it becomes clear that the Twins have always worked best as a pop band, while the group's post-punk and rock'n'roll incarnations haven't convinced, and still don't convince, either critics or audiences. The album is indeed a chart failure – peaking at no. 90 in the UK – and the tour supporting it will also turn out to be the band's last.

The Rebirth

With the following album, Big Trash, things go differently: the duo launches into a rebirth phase, signing with Warner Bros., who promise them a truckload of money and give them free rein. The new record thus brings the Twins back to the sounds of the mid-80s, still with an arena rock edge of course, but recovering keyboards and synths and, above all, the joy and desire to make celebratory music. After the tragedy of the miscarriage, in 1988 Tom and Alannah finally have their first child together, and with this happy birth the couple recovers and finds their way again. You can sense it right from the opening number, “Sugar Daddy”, a bright and playful track.

The tracklist of this record flows decisively and smoothly: the pure rock'n'roll of “Queen Of The U.S.A.”, an almost glam metal track (almost), sits alongside the protest song “Bombers In The Sky”, a heartland anti-war piece that strongly recalls the U2 and Simple Minds of the same period. “This Girl's On Fire” is an engaging guitar-driven new wave tune that harks back to the trio era, and the same goes for “T.V. On”, which brings back the synths and attention to rhythm, telling of modernity and how to react to the omnipresence of the media, inviting us to "do it with the television on".

Worth a special mention is the atmospheric funk of “Dirty Summer's Day”, perhaps one of the most underrated songs in their entire catalogue – again, the comparison with Simple Minds is apt. The album once again welcomes legendary producer Steve Lillywhite, who works on two tracks, as well as Debbie Harry in a very 80s special cameo – a phone call, recorded by Bailey directly from across the Atlantic.

With this seventh album the two definitively lose favour with audiences and the charts, but apparently they no longer care, and it shows: the music is made by them and for them, and perhaps that's exactly why it sounds so spontaneous and good-humoured, a great act of liberation.

The Last Album

As the decade turns, the Thompson Twins begin approaching new sounds, paying attention to the bubbling rave scene and the contemporary productions of new groups like Stone Roses and Primal Scream. Influences that are clearly felt in what will be the duo's final album: Queer, a title that – as Bailey explains – doesn't refer to the LGBTQI+ community but is adopted to express a more general sense of "freedom": "It's a political term, a word people use to identify someone who isn't normal. What I'm trying to say is that it's a word about freedom."

Before the record's release – in the golden year of 1991 – Bailey works with engineer Keith Fernley on various electronic dance experiments under the name Feedback Max. These productions, distributed to London DJs on white label, achieve excellent underground success, which is not, however, reflected in the album's performance upon release. The first single, “Come Inside”, is pure Stone Roses and deals with exactly what you'd expect, but it fails to win over audiences. Much better are the playful “Funky Valentine” and the celebratory electronic pop of “Groove On”.

The rhythm section on this record leans decidedly toward drum machines with various ethnic flourishes, while the dance dimension decisively takes over from the "rock" one – which here is increasingly more funk than anything else. But other territories are explored too: the murky dub of the title track, on which Alannah Currie launches into a very contemporary rap vocal, or the Madchester influences – Happy Mondays – on “The Invisible Man”. And while “Wind It Up” is perhaps their last song in the "old" Twins style, the grand finale, “The Saint”, openly embraces techno and foreshadows the exploration of uncharted territory. A record that should be reassessed today, if not as a swan song – which it isn't – then certainly as an original farewell.

The Final Adventure: Babble

The final album, however interesting, sells poorly and convinces even fewer, and as the music world begins to embrace new britpop phenomena like Suede and Blur, it soon becomes clear that not only the era of the Twins but also that of new wave has definitively come to an end. The 80s are over, the dream has passed, and it's time to look ahead. Tom and Alannah do just that, starting over from the electronic experiments with Keith Fernley, who by this point is effectively added as the third member of a group that, however, changes its name.

Babble are not Thompson Twins, even though a few melodic echoes and familiar touches crop up here and there. The project leans decidedly towards a dub/trip-hop sound with ambient and psychedelic influences, and a "chill", unhurried, deeply reflective character. With this new project the trio released two albums: The Stone (1994) and Ether (1996), both full of interesting sounds but inevitably struggling to find an audience.

Tom and Alannah left the project to devote themselves to a host of other activities, including production work for other artists, visual art and activism. The two divorced in 2003, effectively ending the partnership that had made the band's history, and only Bailey would go on to perform those songs live as a solo artist – his only album under his own name, Science Fiction, came out in 2018 – often as part of various 80s revival tours, for instance in 2018 alongside The B-52's and Culture Club. But Thompson Twins have never reunited since, not even for a single show. The rest is history.

Conclusion

In a 2025 interview – the same one quoted above – Alannah Currie reflects: ⟦Q1⟧. And Joe Leeway adds: ⟦Q2⟧. A lineup and a musical proposition of this kind are, looking back, rare to find even today. Further proof, yet again, of how that imaginative, unpredictable era still conceals truly unique realities waiting to be rediscovered and reassessed.

Ride the wave of great music

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This article is an English translation of the original Italian text, published on OndaRock.it. It was translated with the help of artificial intelligence, under the editorial responsibility of OndaRock's editor-in-chief, Claudio Fabretti.

Read the original in Italian · About the English edition